A World of Ciphers
by pastelchalks
Summary: What would have happened if Bill was present in the childhood of the young pines twins? Will their personalities turn out twisted and sadistic or will Bill grow a soft spot for them? Are they going to be able to stop Weirdmaggedon before it happens? [Dark Pines Twins AU] [inspired by Fantasy Fan 223's 'Learning to Love', please check their story out, it's amazing!]
1. Prologue

Growing up, Mabel and Dipper heard things, things that nobody else heard. They both saw things that nobody else saw. Consistently throughout their childhood, there was an 'imaginary friend', a triangle named Bill.

He was yellow, could fly and was often depicted in their drawings with one eye and a top hat on. This 'cute imaginary friend' had lost its charm once the twins were old enough that imaginary friends should be a thing of the past.

Countless times had Mr and Mrs Pines walked in on their children, talking to an empty spot in the corner of the room, and waiting for its seeming response. _Both_ of the twins seemed to have the ability to see _him._ To be honest, it first started worrying their parents when the twins both had heard the same response from _him_. The person, or rather creature, who wasn't actually there. How had they both heard the same response from something that wasn't there?

They could both see _him_. The could both _hear_ _him_. They went to a psychologist who simply said that they would grow out of 'seeing their imaginary friend' when they were ready.

Bill eventually wasn't seen anymore. There were no more instances of playing or talking with the imaginary friend anymore. Their parents seemed to be placated by this news, happy with the fact that the unsettling yellow triangle wasn't there anymore. Well this was how it seemed when the twins were awake. The moment they shut their eyes to fall asleep it would be a different story. Bill was there in their dreams, never threatening, but always feeling a little menacing.

Used to his appearance in their lives, they went on normally. Dipper and Mabel learned not to respond to his quiet prompts in their head in front of other people who couldn't see him. It would just protect them from people thinking that they were insane.

Over time, Bill's influence over them became more prominent, and they giggled at things that other adults would find purely horrifying. They cackled loudly in a heart dissection during a sixth-grade science class.

The instructions were ignored, and Mabel had taken extreme pleasure in squeezing excess blood out of it and stabbed her brother in the thigh with a scalpel. His blood started convulsing out of the wound, they both glanced at it and laughed psychotically. They never seemed to feel the pain. Dipper found a strange hilarity that came with pain, no matter if it was his own or somebody else's.

Although they couldn't see Bill during the day anymore, he could still be heard, commenting on everything they did. Influencing many of their choices, like whether or not to have orange juice instead of milk with their breakfast.

 _Bill delivered on every promise._

The promise that if they wrote down exactly what he said, they'd pass every test. The promise that if they had orange juice instead of water with breakfast, they'd have more energy.

Bill was trusted, they didn't really question him. Bill was more like a parent to them than their actual parents ever were. Their real parents were always running off to work every morning and dumping them with a babysitter. But Bill? He _always_ had time for them.

When they turned ten, Bill started doing Astral Projections of himself again, but this time in a human form. His human form looked like a teenage boy that was lean, nicely tanned and had a trendy fluffy masculine haircut to match his golden locks.

He had an eyepatch over one eye, wore a suit with a pale yellow shirt on underneath with a black bowtie and top hat to match. This time, it wasn't just them that could see him, as long as he had a physical connection to one of the twins, he was anchored into their reality.

He looked like a wealthy teen, that wasn't too bad looking either. He seemed completely normal to Mabel and Dipper. The plus side was that whenever he held Dipper or Mabel's hands, the physical connection allowed other people to see him as well, and their mother swelled in pride that her children had a friend.

The only weird or supernatural thing about him was they could hear him in their minds, and the fact that he had once changed from a triangle to a person, but they just chalked this fact up to their younger childish imagination. Bill, which they had started to call 'Will' ever since he had a human form, was extremely nice. He had even somehow convince their mother that they should get a family pet - a fluffy black kitten with two yellow eyes. All he did was snap his fingers.

—

It was the summer of their twelfth year on the planet when their parents announced that they were going to stay with their Great-Uncle Stan for the Summer in a place called Gravity Falls, in Oregon.

Once they told Will, he was ecstatic, saying that he'd meet them there.

This summer was going to be great.


	2. Chapter 1

"This attic is amazing, check out all my splinters!" Mabel declared, holding her hand up for Dipper to examine with a morbid smile. Dipper looked around, less enthusiastic. He was hoping for something with a little more danger to house them for the summer, and he knew he was going to get terribly bored.

Their good friend Will would probably make things a little interesting though.

"And there's a goat on my bed." At this, Mabel immediately unsheathed a knife she had hidden on a knife belt that fit under her sweater.

"Mabel if you do that somebody's going to notice a missing goat, surely." Ah, Dipper, the ever so responsible one out of the two. "And what did I tell you about wearing that knife belt. Choose your favourite knife and put it on a holster. It's much lighter, you'll be more nimble." Mabel pouted, but complied. She liked the variety that the knife belt gave her, but she knew in the end that Dipper was probably correct. Mabel's face looked downcast, and on an impulse, she suddenly stabbed the goat in the eye.

"What do you think, Dipper?" She wiped her forehead with the back of her bloody palm, spreading some onto her face.

"… Clean yourself up before we head down, and ask Will to see if he can do anything to salvage the goat's life." Dipper dumped his things down to go downstairs, out of the attic.

—

' _My sister tends to be the one who looks on the bright side of things, while I am the responsible one. Most of the time._ ' Dipper thought as he watched his sister roll down a grassy slope.

He could feel his Great Uncle Stan - Grunkle Stan - hiding and preparing to jump on him. Dipper used his reflexes and grabbed Stan's wrist in a firm hold. He seemed to stare right through Stan.

"Don't."

Stan nodded quickly, this kid unnerved him, not so much scare him but something about the twins weren't right. It would probably be better if he stayed out of their way. Even the goat looked spooked by them.

Dipper gave a small laugh. "Gullible! I'm kidding. I didn't expect you to be so spooked." Stan didn't know if it was a joke or not, the kid looked so serious and as menacing as a kid could be.

"Mabel and I are going into the forest now to hang out with our friend, that's okay with you, right?" Stan shrugged. It wasn't like he was going to argue with the kid, and he did like the kid, the kid just threw him off a little.

The kids seemed to like him as well, well enough that they respected him… even just a little. Just enough that they didn't drive him crazy as they did with a lot of the Mystery Shack's customers.

—

Once they were far enough into the woods, the kids held their hands out, and Will made himself tangible enough so that he could grab their hands. They started walking, in silence and frowns on their faces when Mabel started giggling, Will joined in, slowly shifting into his triangle form, as his cackle was echoed.

Eventually, Dipper joined and they were laughing for absolutely no reason except that they could.

"I've got a plan. You guys are going to be perfect for the lead roles." The now _triangular Bill_ said.

Oh, it had been a smart idea in implementing himself into these kid's minds permanently from a young age. To erase him from them now would be to erase their entire personality.

He'd had so much influence that taking away that influence could leave them empty.

—

"I want a boyfriend," Mabel said. Bill squinted his eye.

"Why?"

"I dunno, I guess I just want to know what the betrayal in their eyes look like if I stab them. I want to see the betrayal of a significant other." She already knew what average betrayal looked like, now she wants to see the betrayal of somebody who loved her.

Bill shrugged. He couldn't argue with that, the pain was hilarious anyway.

"Go get em'," He encouraged her, shifting back into his Will persona (the human form).

Dipper looked like he had absolutely no interest in romance at all, understandable.

—

Walking in the woods one day, for exploration, they had found Will and grabbed his hands. Mabel holding bills right hand while Dipper held the left. In Mabel's left hand she held a daisy chain she had made previously, it was covered in glitter.

"Kids, who's this?" Stan's rough old voice rang through the air, it wasn't smooth like Mabel's voice, and it wasn't as chiming as Will's voice.

Stan's voice was more gravely than anything else.

"This is our friend. Our best friend. William, preferred Will, Cipher." Mabel shrugged and gently tugged the now standing Dipper and Will along with her arm. She looped the daisy chain enthusiastically around Stan's neck.

Stan stiffened as he heard the name of the blonde teenage boy with one eye. As Will got in closer proximity of Stan, he winked to Stan, which went unnoticed by Dipper and Mabel.

"Get inside kids, it's late out." Stan suddenly decided. In no way was it actually too late for them to be out, the circumstances changed things though. Mabel looked at the almost setting sun, doubting if it was really almost dinner. She nodded to her brother, who sighed and gave Will a quick tight hug, with Mabel mirroring his actions.

As Dipper and Mabel reluctantly let go of Will's hands and walked inside the shack, which they were followed by Stan. Once Will was out of sight from the younger twins, he changed into his triangle form, and his eye seemed to curve upwards at the sides, conveying a sick smile to Stan, who promptly shut the door, in some sort of fear.

He was going to talk to the kids. No matter what, he was going to keep them safe from this stupid triangle propaganda. One of his relatives had already been screwed over by Bill, he wasn't going to let that happen again. Stan trudged up the stairs to find Dipper reading a book on quantum physics and Mabel was knitting a sweater, pink with a unicorn design designated in the centre of the front.

"Kids, about Bill…" Dipper's head snapped up.

"How did you know he was also called Bill? We never told you that." Dipper narrowed his eyes, was Stan getting to close to their strange addictions and activities? Other's would probably call the police if they found out that the twins had a hobby for stabbing and being stabbed by other people because the pain was delightful to them.

They liked it because it meant they could feel something. It meant that they were alive. The high they got when spots started dancing in their vision made something about their life euphoric, but as soon as that happened, Will snapped his fingers and suddenly they were okay again. They would usually pout at that part, but they knew that Will just wanted to make sure that they weren't dead.

They didn't ask how that would happen and they didn't care. Bill was a dear friend to them.

"I know because everybody knows that Bill is a nickname for William." Dipper's suspicious glance softened, but his eyes were still hard, looking for something that he didn't hope to find.

He didn't find anything, yet. He'd have to ask Will to teach him how to look for signs of lies again. He had forgotten from when Will first taught them a few years back, he had to admit he was getting a little rusty in that area.

"Go on," he wanted Stan to get to the point already, he was wasting time just standing there scratching his head, trying to carefully handpick his words, wise.

"You're not to hang out with him, he's… different. I know him and he's not the sort you want to get in with." Stan explained, tiredly. It wasn't the full truth, but he knew Bill. He could recognise Bill anywhere, even if he now sometimes went by Will, or if he was in a human form.

The similarities were uncanny, and uncomfortable, knowing his brother's past experiences with the one-eyed triangle demon from the encounters documented down in Stanford's journal.

Mabel immediately protested.

"We've known him forever! If he was going to pull anything on us, he would've down something by now."

Stan sighed, these children were way to trusting, and way too naive. Stan knew that they were far from angels, but on the inside, they were just kids. Kids he had to take care of. Their bond reminded him of his own bond with his Brother when they had been around that age.

"You can't trust him. He's no good." For a slight of a second, Stan thought he saw Mabel's eyes flash with blue fire. Stan rubbed his eyes, as soon as it was coming, it left again.

She frowned at him, which he felt hurt him more than if she had just gotten angry with him. She wasn't one to get angry, she was more of a forgiving goofy girl. Never got angry, just highly disappointed.

Unlike Dipper, who went through bouts of emotional anger, crying while yelling at the person all at the same time. As if it really hurt Dipper himself when getting angry, as if he felt like there was no other way to get his point across to the person subject to his anger.

Mabel turned around and got into a comfortable position, ignoring Stan as she assumed a sleeping pose, though the light was still on. Dipper put down his book and put out the kerosene lamp in the room, also turning and assuming a sleeping position.

Stan was left at the edge of the dark room, by the door which had let light flood in through from the hallway. He sighed and walked out, shutting the door behind him. Sometimes kids were hard to look after, hard to turn down.

He'd just hate to see the betrayal in the kid's eyes when they find out Bill's ( _Will's)_ true nature.

That kind of betrayal, the one by somebody so close to you, was the one that hurt the most.

And Stan knew it all too well.

—

It had been a few days and the twins hadn't seen any sign of Bill. Maybe was noticeably getting distressed, and reckless, as shown by the way she tore a stuffed unicorn in half.

It seemed like Bill thought it wise to keep his distance, for a while at least. Maybe it was for the best, Stan looked more alert than usual. He really didn't want Bill to show up again.

Until one fateful day.

Mabel had set up a few voting ballots, with the question posed on the top "Do you like me?" and three boxes giving the choice of "Yes", "Definitely" and "Absolutely."

It didn't exactly have much tact to it but she could be seen standing behind a counter a few metres away from the boy she had given the note to, giggling excitedly.

"I rigged it." She declared as if it had been one of the greatest ideas she had ever come up with. It was far from it, but Dipper guessed if you didn't celebrate the small things then nothing would really feel worth it. So he let her have her fun, for now. Whatever boy she brought home could easily be scared off, he could handle the backlash if they survived the afternoon after playing Mabel's fun 'games'.

The games in question where sick and sadistic, Mabel watching the victim of the 'game' squirm in pain, and then usually ask Bill to heal them, take their memory of it and put it in their nightmares. So they never actually thought it happened, but they felt and remembered every moment of pain as a dream respectively.

Dipper agreed that the game was fun, but he didn't go overboard with constantly playing it, he had more productive things to do than punish the innocent. As much fun as it was to go to church services and wait for the priest to look him in his eyes and start chanting in Latin, hoping for the demon inside the boy to be gone, Dipper was curious about the supernatural in the forest.

"Mabel, I know you're in your whole boy crazy phase, but I think you might be overdoing it with the 'crazy' part," Dipper said, nonchalantly. Mabel peeked over her shoulder to get a look at Dipper.

"Crazy? Since when has that ever bothered you?" Mabel replied, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. Her brother had never commented on her stabbing or killing anything before, so why was he saying something on something as small as rigging a love letter?

"Ever since people started staring, like twelve people can see you right now. We need to lay low." Dipper explained, spraying some sort of cleaner solution on a glass jar and wiped it away with a tattered blue cloth.

He looked at the cloth in disgust.

"It's not red enough… that can easily be remedied." He mused, quietly.

"But Dipper, this is our first summer away from home, it's my big chance to re-in-act those romantic murder movies!" Mabel gushed to Dipper, getting dreamy eyes.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean you have to flirt with every boy you meet." Dipper pointed out to Mabel, she didn't mind.

"You do know that I'm not one for patience, that was always your area. Mock all you want, brother dear, but I got a good feeling about this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now."

As soon as Mabel said that, their Grunkle Stan walked through, looking ragged and worse than usual. Mabel immediately cringed.

"Aw, come on!" She whined, Dipper laughed at her misfortune.

"Okay! Look, alive people! I need somebody to hang these signs up in the creepy part of the forest." Everybody opted out of going to do it, but eventually, Dipper was the one that was chosen for the task, much to his annoyance.

—

Bill could feel his imprint on the twins start to soak up with the natural magic that radiated out of the small rural town. Since he had been around the twins ever since they were extremely young, his imprint was a permanent mark on them, rather than if he had only started to coax them when they were adults, which would leave a temporary imprint.

It wasn't just any magic, not all magic was compatible with a dream demon imprint, so slowly had they developed a magical ability. Bill was really hoping they were to get different abilities, so he'd have a variety of defences. All they got was the damned deal power.

They could shake somebody's hand with a harmless blue fire engulfing the shake to seal the deal, forcing the person to comply.

It wasn't too bad for a power but Bill was uncomfortable about them because that was _his_ trademark power. Everybody knew that blue fire handshakes were Bill's thing. Maybe it was his imprint on the twins that influenced what power they'd get. In the future, they'd develop more powers. This was only the beginning.

But you couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth he guessed.

—

"Hey Dipperrrrr," Mabel whined, Dipper was looking into that strange journal he had found in the woods.

"This journal says we can trust no one… we can trust Will, right? He's always been there." Dipper wondered allowed, and immediately felt bad for even questioning it, Will (Bill) was like the cool uncle to them, except he had been there most his childhood and practically raised them through their minds.

"Sure you can!" Mabel replied, losing interest as she found some glitter.

"Look at this! It shimmers just like how blood does in the sunlight!" She tilted the container holding the glitter back on forth and watched how the light played with the contents.

"So… pretty…" Dipper ignored her and flipped through the book, and he landed on a page with the title written like it was in a rush, not in a neat manuscript like the rest of the book.

Scrawled on the top was the sentence "DO NOT SUMMON BILL CIPHER. DO NOT TRUST."

Dipper raised an eyebrow, apparently, he shouldn't trust Bill Cipher? As he read the reasonings, he still didn't understand why he shouldn't summon Bill Cipher.

The casual stab was hilarious, and psychotic laughter to ring in their ears. Manipulating people was harder, but the payoff was usually worth it.

Mabel and Dipper left the psychiatric manipulation for their good friend Will to do.

Mabel grabbed out her iPod and started playing a tune that a was an old song, the name he couldn't recall but he did start mumbling the words to the tune that _Will_ had introduced to them when they were young.

"We'll meet again.. dunno where dunno when… but I know we'll meet again one sunny day…" The song went for a few more minutes, and by now even Mabel started absentmindedly singing the song.

"We should walk back, now." Dipper declared, stretching as he started to walk back to the Mystery Shack, Mabel shrugged and followed, skipping along every few steps. She was still humming the song.

—

Dipper was enthusiastically talking about the journal he had found when the doorbell echoed around the hallways and rooms of the Mystery Shack.

"Who's that?" He mused, looking towards Mabel. She inhaled a deep breath, and excitedly declared that it was 'time to spill the beans' and then knocked over a literal can of empty beans.

"This girls got a date, whoop whoop!" She fell back onto the couch she was perched on and giggled, thinking of all the things she could do. She'd have to wait, gain his trust first though. It was never fun just looking at pure terror all the time, Mabel wanted the look of betrayal this time.

"So let me get this straight, in the five minutes I left you when I went upstairs, you already managed to find a boyfriend?" Dipper raised an eyebrow, that was quick. Even for Mabel.

"What can I say, I guess I'm irresistible." She tucked her arms into her massive sweater sleeves and flopped them around with a cheeky grin. She jumped off the couch to go answer the door. Once Mabel left the room, in walked their Grunkle Stan, who was sipping on a Pitt Cola.

Mabel came back inside, a tall boy in tow, and lingered around the doorway.

"Hey family," she began to announce. "Say hello to my new boyfriend!" The boy turned around, and his face could be seen as pale and disturbing. His clothes were torn in places that wouldn't be considered fashionable.

"Sup," the boy said, in a gravelly voice.

"Hey," Dipper responded, awkwardly, giving the boy a strange sort of stare. He wasn't quite sure if this was the right one for Mabel, he wasn't sure that she'd exactly have a lot of fun with this one.

"How's it hanging." Stan casually said, finding nothing too off about the boy.

"We met at the cemetery, he's really deep," Mabel explained, gripping onto the black hoodie that the boy was wearing.

He looked around teenage, but there was something about his face that told Dipper that this might not exactly be the case. It would really be useful if they could get some of Bill's help right around now. They'd have to deal with what cards they had, Dipper guessed.

"Woah, a little muscle there?" Mabel realised, surprised. This boy seemed so… skinny like an emo looking kid around the cemetery. She chuckled nervously.

"Heh, what a surprise." Mabel looked away, considering what just happened. He'd probably give a fight when she was to turn on him.

"So what's your name?" Dipper says, reluctantly and curious. The longer the boy is there, the more ominous he seems to Dipper.

"Uhhh, Normal man." He tries to find a name for himself, and thinly rises Dipper's suspicion. This boy was not what he seemed, but neither were they so he could give the boy the benefit of the doubt, for now.

"He means Norman." Mabel covers up for him, a little too quickly for Dipper's liking. He raises an eyebrow at her and she simply winks.

Without Bill around, Dipper thinks she might be a little over her head. Even though it should be pretty easy for both of them, 'Norman' looks like somebody who would put up some kind of fight for his life.

He was larger than the both of them, and since they didn't seem to be developing powers very quickly, he didn't like their odds.

"Are you bleeding, Norman?" Dipper questioned, dubiously. Normal looked around, suspiciously as if he were panicked.

"It's jam." He says, almost too quickly. Dipper narrows his eyes at him. Mabel gasps.

"I love jam!" She yells, punching him, too hard to be affectionate. 'Norman' chalks it up to her being excited. "Look at this!" She motions to the space between her and 'Norman'.

"So you wanna go hold hands, or whatever." He suggests, probably to try to get away from Dipper's withering stare at him.

"Oh, oh my goodness, don't wait up!" Mabel exclaims, flattered. She runs out the door frame to exit the shack, quickly. Norman follows, a little less gracefully and hits his head on the doorframe trying to walk out.

Dipper's left eye twitches in annoyance.

—

Dipper flips through Journal Three, consulting to what the book thought Norman might be.

Although there were some completely ridiculous conclusions in there, Dipper settled on the most plausible one to this position, the undead. It sounded crazy but Dipper was certain this is was the solution.

Dipper once again red out loud the attributes that the undead held, sitting in a large room in the attic.

He yelped a little once he read the part that they were often mistaken for teenagers. Just as he had yelped, he turned around to look through the bay window, to find 'Norman' limping over towards Mabel, in a zombie-like fashion.

"I like you," Mabel dismisses, watching Norman stagger along to her.

Dipper watches as Norman raises his arms, to rest down forcefully against Mabel's shoulders. Once he removes his arms, Dipper can now see that he's just placed a daisy chain around her neck.

Mabel looked mildly pleased, also like she was holding back from slapping Norman across the face for touching her without her permission. She gasps, almost sounding fake.

"Daisies? You scallywag!" Mabel attempts to compliment Norman. Dipper can tell she's really trying her best at being polite, trying to pick any redeeming qualities from Norman.

"Is my sister really dating a zombie or am I just going nuts?" Dipper muses to himself.

"Its a dilemma, to be sure." Soos comments and Dipper jumps. He wasn't expecting Soos to be there, or overhear any of Dippers muses. He hadn't seen Soos there a second ago.

"I couldn't help but overhear you talking to yourself out loud in this empty room." Soos comments, nonchalantly. He doesn't notice the way Dipper jumped when Dipper first noticed him in this room.

"Soos!" Dipper's surprised. "You've seen Mabel's boyfriend, he's gotta be a zombie, right?" Dipper asks for a second opinion. Usually he'd consult his all-time good friend, Bill, but currently, that was out of the question.

"Hmmm, how many brains did you see the guy eat?" Soos says, jumping straight to the evidence behind Dipper's claim.

"Zero…" Dipper slumps where he stands, as he realises his claim isn't that good.

"Look, dude, I believe you, I'm always noticing weird stuff in this town. Like the mailman, pretty sure that dudes a werewolf." Soos explains, nodding empathically towards Dipper while rubbing his chin.

"But you gotta have evidence." Soos once more tells Dipper, and Dipper feels like he's had this conversation before.

Suddenly he recalls Bill telling him that. They were five and Bill was teaching them how to frame people, by planting evidence. Dipper takes in what Soos says, and leaves, to go get the evidence he needed.

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, Dipper follows Norman and his sister, recording anything and everything they did. A few times, Dipper had come super close to getting the evidence, only for the tables to turn and it actually is something normal or coincidental.


End file.
